The Alternative to Bro Marketing
My most commented on and widely shared episodes are always about Bro Marketing. Whenever I post about Bros on Instagram, I get so much engagement and I believe that there is a reason for that.
People are genuinely over the Bro Marketing tactics and not only that, most people have been duped by tactics such as these:
- “You'll never get this offer again. When the cart closes — it's gone FOREVER!”
- There are only three PDFs left so grab yours NOW
- The, “Hey, I've been thinking about you and I think you're perfect for this program”… although they are sending that email to 40,000 people on their list
- Making these huge results claims and they tell you that it will barely take you any time or work to get there.
- Manufacturing (A.K.A. lying about their own authority)
We are seeing more and more people having a conversation about the death of Bro Marketing is dying. Maybe, I don't know if it is for sure.
But what I do know is that people are getting far more sophisticated and how they make their buying decisions.
Because let's face it, they've been screwed over once and they don't want to make the same mistake again.
But what does that mean for us as business owners?
Because when you look at the world of sales and marketing, it seems like Bro Marketing is the only thing that is modeled.
It's the only thing that has touted as this will work for your business and it can feel like there's no other option to market and sell in your business. And that is hogwash because guess what?
There is a different way to market your business and it is a way where you can be of service and build relationships.
Plus it's even scientifically backed with research like holy crap, nobody is telling you about this and that's going to change right now because we are going to talk about on this episode a different way to market and sell without any of the sleazy Dude Bro Marketing tactics.
Tune into the audio:
I'm going to give you what that alternative is, but before we get into this juicy second path to persuasion, I wanted to make time for my favorite part of the show where I get to give some love back to you, the listeners and give you a shout out.
So today's listener shout out, goes to Grim Grinning Runner and they left a five-star podcast review on iTunes and they said,
Truly binge-worthy. I discovered this podcast only recently and I've been devouring every episode. Dr. Michelle Mazur is a true knowledgeable professional and does a fantastic job of delivering actionable content in a fresh concrete way, not the same old rehearsed advise that other so-called experts give, but true cutting edge material.
Thank you Grim for leaving this review, and I don't talk about this much on my podcast episodes, but you should know that everything that I teach and talk about is actually based on research. Usually, research taken from psychology or communication studies. And I do this because that's what my Ph.D. was all about. Doing the research and knowing what works. And I want you to know what works based on science, not just experience. So thank you. Thank you Grim for reminding me of this and for your fantastic review.
And if you have something to say about this podcast, please leave me a five-star review on iTunes or wherever you're listening to your podcast. Because when you leave a review it helps more people find out about the show. So if you're listening and getting something out of it, leave me a review. And who knows? You might be getting some you listen to love on the future episode of the pod.
All right, now that I've given my shout outs, let's talk about the alternative to Bro Marketing. And I'm so excited about this because I get to get nerdy with this and tell you about the two paths to persuasion.
There is a model, it is called the elaboration likelihood model and it was first published in 1966 so this is old school by two researchers Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo, and it's a message processing model.
It explains how we, the receiver of the communication process, that message and it also explains how people shift their beliefs and their behaviors and which path you choose and it depends on your answer to these two questions:
- Question number one, am I motivated to think about this? Yes or no? Am I motivated to think about this message?
- Question number two, am I able to think about this? Do I have the energy, the bandwidth to actually process this message?
If you answer no to either one of these questions, then you are on the bro marketing path.
Petty and Cacioppo call this the peripheral route and a lot of times it's perfectly fine to take this route of persuasion because there are some decisions we make every day that we don't need to think about.
You're at the grocery store, you're buying some yogurt. You are not going to stand there and weigh the pros and cons of each type of yogurt in each flavor and make a rational decision.
No, you're going to buy what you always buy. Familiarity. You've had it before, it's great. You know your family likes it or you're going to buy what's on sale. So we just don't care. It's not a high-risk purchase and it doesn't need our processing attention.
Here is what the Bro <arketers don't want you to know.
They don't want you to think. They do everything in their power with their sales pages, with their persuasive messages and their marketing campaigns to make you choose that bro path, the peripheral route.
They know it is easier to get people to yes when they're not thinking about the message, right?
When you're not critically thinking like, oh, is this the right next step for my business? Am I making a good decision here? Is this really what I need to focus on? No, no, no.
They don't want you to think about any of that. They just want to inundate you with all of the social proof and scarcity and neuro-linguistic programming and authority and social proof to make you not think.
Let's face it, our brains want to conserve energy. So our brains love to process information this way.
There are advantages to this path. When you are a marketer, it works super, super well. It's very effective to get people to make a decision this way it can shorten the sales cycle even.
If you're looking for a short term money grab, yeah, this is a perfect path, but there are disadvantages.
There's buyer's remorse. People asking for refunds or getting into the program and realizing, Oh, I do not need this. I can't believe I spent $3,000 on this course that I do not need.
There's also less loyalty to the business, meaning that if people feel duped into buying something, they're not going to buy from that person again. And ultimately that can cause brand and reputation damage.
You can have people get the reputation that their courses don't work or the results that they had on the on their pretty sales page aren't actually true.
What you should know is that there is this second path, a better way to persuade a way that is focused on allowing people to think for themselves.
You want to guide people to make the best decision for them and their business, and it is a path all about building relationships over time.
The goal is that when they think about your message and they ask themselves, am I motivated to think about this? Am I able to think about this?
When they say yes, then you can be the guide on this journey and I call this path the 3 Word Rebellion, audience journey.
The smarty-pants academics call it the central path.
This audience journey is based on things like logic reasoning, making a good argument, creating an emotional connection with your audience, getting tiny commitments along the way so that people are making a decision.
Because at the end of the day, this path is all about helping people make the best decision for themselves. It's also a path that uses those persuasive triggers in a naturally occurring way. Because guess what? Scarcity, social proof, familiarity, authority, reciprocity, all of it.
Those aren't necessarily evil to use. It's only evil when you are using it unnaturally or unethically. But there is a way to use those things ethically to help people make a decision.
The best part about this is that you get to be known as a trusted resource, an ally who's more concerned about their people than their bottom line.
Clearly, the advantages are that it is integrity-based, it's focused on the person more.
There's definitely more long term loyalty and people will be willing to talk about you because they trust you. They trust you as that sought after expert.
Clearly, there are some of the disadvantages like a longer sales cycle because we're building relationships. People get a good vibe, feel like you've got their back, they're more, they might move to the buying decision quicker.
The other thing is that on this path people will definitely say no because it's just not the right time or the right decision for them.
If you're building a business that you want to have a lasting legacy and you value connection in integrity, then trading off more time and more no's for stronger loyalty and better relationships with your people is totally worth it.
It is totally worth taking the audience journey.
How do you implement this second path? I'm glad you asked this question and I realized as I was preparing for this podcast that it's going to take me a little bit more time to describe how you can use this in your business.
I'm doing an in-depth masterclass training on creating your audience journey. It will be live on August 14th at 10:00 AM Pacific, 1:00 PM Eastern and you can go to sign up for that now.
My trainings are never fluffy, just so you know, always a lot of great solid content.
I'm going to take you through the five parts of an audience journey, how to create content with the intention that actually helps you achieve your business goals. But most importantly, you'll leave knowing how to take people on a journey from who the hell are you to heck yes, I'm in.
And that journey is something that can be an asset for your business. You can use it again and again and again.
It has this power to grow your business and grow your audience so that ultimately you can serve more people and good business owners who are doing good work can know about you and how you serve.
Go register today and hey, there are only a hundred spots available. Nah Kidding. Lots of spots available.
Right now there's only one time to get this training. We'll see you in the master class. Remember, there is a better way to market and sell. There is a way to build relationships, to help people make decisions, and that is the audience journey way.
Let's create that path for your customers.
